The rising price and politics of oil

Gordon Brown's condemnation of the member countries of Opec (Brown calls for end of the power of Opec, May 20) is not only undiplomatic, it is also based on incorrect data. He seems to be unaware of the supply and demand realities of the international oil market. In the three years to 2007 total supplies have exceeded demand by an average of 0.4m barrels per day. Thus few supplies from the oil stockpiles in the OECD countries have been released - appropriate though such releases would have been in restraining oil prices increases.

With physical supply/demand thus in equilibrium, there is no justification for the dramatic price rises which have alarmed users - and politicians - leading to high financial gains by the trading companies. Oil exporters - including Opec - and oil-importing countries need to reassert their collective authority over the market and so secure oil at the long-run supply price, currently likely to be of the order of $50 per barrel. In this respect, perhaps President Bush and Mr Brown could get together to emulate the examples set by President Clinton in 1997 and 1998, when he successfully did deals with Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, and so stabilised the oil price.

Britain's position would also be better if, during his time as chancellor, he had recognised the need for public-private partnerships to secure the optimal exploitation of the UK's offshore wealth - as is the case for almost all the world's other oil-rich countries.Peter OdellProfessor emeritus, international energy studies, Erasmus University, Rotterdam

After the 2004 fiasco in which it was revealed that Shell had systematically overstated its reserves, the company now sees the occupation of Iraq - which has led to the deaths of over 1 million Iraqis - as an opportunity to fill this gap. Indeed a draft oil law, written in secret under intense pressure from the US and UK governments, the IMF and Big Oil, would allow multinational companies such as Shell to take the primary role in developing Iraq's oilfields, under contracts of up to 30 years, reaping staggering profits and depriving Iraq of tens of billions of dollars worth of revenue.

This is not the first time Shell has sought to profit at the expense of the Iraqi people. During Britain's first occupation of Iraq after the first world war, a consortium of foreign companies, 23.75% owned by Shell, was granted a 75-year contract which gave most of the oil revenue to the companies. Most Iraqis believe oil production should remain in the public sector, and the proposed de facto privatisation is opposed by all of Iraq's trade unions, Iraqi oil experts and political and religious groups. No long-term contracts should be signed with foreign oil companies as long as Iraq is under foreign military occupation.Salih Ibrahim, Mundher Adhami, Nadje al-Ali, Namir Kafil-Hussain, Sabah al-Mukhtar, Muhran Mushekh, Tahrir Swift, Haifa Zangana